By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Trek has a handful of beloved actors who regularly play multiple characters. The gold standard is Jeffrey Combs: while most famous for playing Weyoun on Deep Space Nine, Combs also played the Ferengi Brunt (sometimes in the same episode) and several other roles (including fan-favorite Enterprise character Shran) in the franchise. Majel Barrett also played Number One, Nurse Chapel, and Lwaxana Troi, all while voicing the Enterprise computer. Suzie Plakston played Worf’s fierce, Klingon baby mama, a logic-loving Vulcan, and an immortal Q. Brent Spiner played the android Data, but he also played his own evil brother, his own human father, and a growing assortment of characters in that positronic papa’s bloodline.
By contrast, when Trek brings in a big-name actor, it’s usually for a one-off cameo. Such actors include Kelsey Grammer, Vanessa Williams, and even Dwayne Johnson (no, really!). When Babe star James Cromwell was cast to play Zefram Cochrane, the creator of warp drive, in Star Trek: First Contact, many assumed that he was just another one-off bit of stunt casting. However, that assumption is dead wrong: not only did Cromwell play three different Trek roles before landing First Contact, but he returned to the Cochrane character for two different TV shows before ending his Trek through the stars.
James Cromwell As You’ve Never Seen Him
James Cromwell made his franchise debut in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Hunted.” There, he played a corrupt planetary leader, Nayrok, who tried to exile soldiers after a major war ended; it turned out that his government had turned these guys into super-soldiers, but he was now worried that their wartime experiences and psychological conditioning would keep them from reintegrating into polite society. Cromwell does an excellent job of turning this minor character into a villain you love to hate, which makes it that much more satisfying when Picard beams away, leaving the man’s fate in the hands of the very soldiers he had screwed over.
In Cromwell’s next Star Trek: The Next Generation appearance, he was completely unrecognizable. In the two-part episode “Birthright,” he played a Yridian named Jaglom Shrek. This freaky-looking alien tempted Worf by telling him something unbelievable: namely, that the Klingon security chief’s father was actually alive. After some not-so-gentle persuasion, Shrek takes Worf to a secret Romulan prison camp; there is no sign of Worf’s father, but the Enterprise officer is taken prisoner. Interestingly, while Shrek is very chatty in “Birthright, Part I,” he says nothing in the follow-up installment. While lines were scripted for Cromwell, he broke his leg between episodes, which resulted in all of his dialogue being cut.
Cromwell’s Only DS9 Appearance
James Cromwell never appeared in The Next Generation again, but he did pop up in a single episode of Deep Space Nine: “Starship Down.” There, he played an alien trade minister named Hanok who had been swindled by Quark. However, the two are forced to put aside their differences when a Jem’hadar torpedo lodges itself in the Defiant mess hall, with them stuck inside the room. After Quark successfully defuses the torpedo, he convinces Hanok to resume trade negotiations with the Federation. Overall, Cromwell really enjoyed his one episode of DS9, and Quark actor Armin Shimerman enjoyed acting alongside someone he had befriended when they did Shakespearean theatre together.
Cromwell’s next appearance in the franchise practically needs no introduction. In the film Star Trek: First Contact, he played Zefram Cochrane, the human who invented faster-than-light travel. While the time-traveling Enterprise crew thinks of Cochrane as a noble and heroic legend, they are shocked to discover that he just wants to make money and party with beautiful women. However, these visitors from the future convince him that his invention will change all of mankind. As for Cromwell, he needed no convincing to reprise this role for the first episode of Enterprise, and he also played his Mirror Universe counterpart via archival footage. Later, he played a holographic Cochrane in the hilarious Lower Decks episode, “Grounded.”
While he hasn’t been as prolific in the franchise as Jeffrey Combs (hell, few people are!), James Cromwell has played way more Star Trek roles than most fans realize. He played three different aliens before playing Zefram Cochrane on three (or four, if we count that archival footage) separate occasions. Given the number of times he reprised the role, it’s a fair guess that this was Cromwell’s favorite. Incidentally, he became an unintentional Trek icon by following a variation of Cochrane’s famous advice: don’t try to be a great character, just be a character, and let fans make their own judgements.
